CLICK HERE TO READ THE FULL REPORT OF SBCC SALARIES
A total of 31 employees at City College earn base salaries of more than $100,000. Professors with “overloads,” or classes over their required minimum, can earn up to $45,000 extra.
The highest earner at the college in 2011 was former Superintendent-President Dr. Andreea Serban, with a paycheck of $226,636 before benefits and taxes.
Dr. Jack Friedlander, former executive vice president of educational programs and acting superintendent-president, earned $198,711 this past year.
These are details contained in a report now on file with the State Chancellor office that lists the base salaries, “overloads,” and cost of benefits of every City College employee.
The report is public information; its content is relevant because salaries and benefits made up 87.8 percent of the college’s total budget. College officials have said repeatedly this is the primary area to be trimmed as they seek in coming months to reduce expenses.
City College was given an April deadline by the State Controller’s Office to make each employee’s salary—including benefits—public.
John Chiang, California state controller, and Jack Scott, chancellor for California Community Colleges, made the first request in a letter to all the state colleges in August 2011.
The State Controller’s Office created a website called “Government Compensation in California” as a response to the public’s increased interest in the spending of taxpayer money. The web page contains all compensation data for every local and state official and employee.
The City of Bell, Calif., drew national media attention in 2010 with the uncovering of its controversially high compensations for officials, and was the trigger according to Chiang and Scott’s letter.
The Channels filed a public records request to receive documentation regarding the salaries of all City College employees. The request was filed in the wake of news-watch agencies—California Watch and Bay Area News Group—filing for salary information from all 72 community college districts in the state.
The document lists every employee at City College, including the vice presidents, whose salaries ranged from $147,342 to $198,711, and deans whose earnings began at $103,502 and capped out at $138,909.
The highest-paid professor on campus was Robert Gray, who is retiring this spring. The professor of earth science’s base salary was $104,124. Gray has been at the college for 45 years.
Many employees earn a large percentage of their total income through what the document terms, “other compensation.” There are a total of 16 people working at City College who earned more than $45,000 in other compensation.
Sue Ehrlich, vice president of human resources and legal affairs, explained to The Channels, via e-mail, what constitutes “other compensation:”
“Overloads are acceptable to faculty and are classes in excessive of the basic obligation to teach 15 [Teacher Loaded Units] a semester. The column, ‘Other Compensations,’ would include overloads, summer pay and stipends.”
Links:
Audit Report of City of Bell, 2010
